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Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair will explain to the police services board next week why two TTC buses were pulled off their routes to ferry Mayor Rob Ford's Don Bosco football players back to school.

The call for answers as to why the buses were needed follows a confusing narrative, with differing reports coming from police, the Toronto Catholic District School Board, athletics officials and Ford.

Councillor Michael Thompson, vice-chair for the board and a Ford ally, said board chair Alok Mukherjee has asked Blair to report to the board on “why what transpired transpired,” and on the use of shelter buses more generally.

What is clear is that, on a rainy Thursday afternoon on the Father Henry Carr high school football field, the Carr coach took issue with a call made by a referee.

When he illegally stepped out onto the field, visibly upset and yelling, the coach was flagged by the referee. Restrained by his players and refusing to leave the field, the coach was ejected and the game called.

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With the Don Bosco players left waiting in the rain just before 4 p.m. for a school bus scheduled to arrive at 4:30 p.m., TTC officials say a Finch bus full of passengers was diverted to the Carr field at the request of police — leaving riders on the sidewalk to wait for another bus.

When that bus had trouble finding the school, a second, empty bus was diverted from the 46 Martin Grove route.

When the first bus failed to arrive, the mayor called the TTC’s CEO, Andy Byford, and left a message expressing concern about the delay.

On Monday, Ford denied any role in calling the buses and raised his own frustrations over riders being booted for his players.

“I did absolutely nothing wrong,” Ford told reporters at City Hall. “What bothers me the most is when you find out that people were told to get off the bus. I’m all about service. That drives me nuts. But I can’t tell Byford what to do, and how to run the TTC. I can’t tell the police what to do, nor would I; I had nothing to do with this.”

Ford said he made the call to Byford because “there was a 20-minute delay” after the initial police call for the bus.

Asked why his players needed the bus, he said: “That’s up to the police.”

TTC chair Karen Stintz said she doesn’t know what exactly Ford said to Byford. She said the TTC is conducting a review of its shelter bus policies.

Stintz also apologized to the riders who were kicked off the bus.

“There’s no question riders were disadvantaged by the fact the shelter bus had been requested,” she said. “And they are owed an apology, because they had to wait in the rain . . . But I stand by the decision to send the shelter bus, because the Toronto Police Service asked us for a shelter bus, and when they ask, we comply.”

Toronto Police spokesperson Mark Pugash said police officers at the scene — two community officers who later sent for six additional officers, including a sergeant — called the bus over concerns the situation on the field had the potential to escalate.

“I’m also told the same two teams played each other two weeks previously and there had been some friction between the two schools,” Pugash said in an email Monday.

Pugash said Chief Blair stands by his officers’ decision.

“As far as the decision to request a bus to de-escalate a situation that caused concern for the officers present, Chief Blair supports the decision of his frontline officers,” he wrote.

But school board officials and the athletics association say the situation was never that serious and the reasons for a bus being called were purely weather-related.

John Yan, spokesperson for the Toronto Catholic District School Board, said Don Bosco principal Ugo Rossi asked police whether a TTC bus could be called to get his team back to school.

“The first priority is the health and safety of the students,” Yan said. “The first proactive notion is it’s cold and raining, they’ve been out here for an hour and a half . . . let’s try to get these students back to school as soon as possible.”

Yan said that because buses are shared between school boards, it would not have been possible for the scheduled bus to arrive earlier, nor could it have waited for the players at the game.

Brian Riddell, executive secretary for the Toronto District Catholic Athletic Association, said that despite an apparent rivalry between the two schools, there was “no confrontation between the two teams whatsoever.”

“Police weren’t called because there was an incident on the field,” Riddell said “This got blown all out of proportion.”

Ford said it all boils down to the actions of the opposing coach, who Riddell said has been suspended indefinitely from coaching pending an appearance before the athletic association’s disciplinary committee.

“I’m not saying anything bad about the other team,” Ford said. “The root of the problem is, if their coach never went on the field to chase a referee, we wouldn’t be in this situation right now. It’s terrible that these people got kicked off the bus. That’s not my call.”

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